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Can truffle gatherers in Périgord continue their traditional way of life?


Patrick Bruel Goes Retro...
A fun musical flashback to
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A Dog's Life...
In a search for cleaner sidewalks an expat looks at pampered Parisian pooches


Disappearing Concierges...
Is the typical Parisian concierge becoming an endganered species?


Paris Street Music...
The sounds of the Paris street are the sounds of the world


France's Legion of Honor...
A
look at France's Legion of Honor from a personal perspective


In a Green Haze of Absinthe
Absinthe inspired a generation of artists before it was banned in 1915. Will it make a comeback?


A Search for the Ideal Cafe
A ramble through Paris via the corner cafes


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Special Features: A day trip to Monet's garden... How the cafe defined itself in Parisian popular culture... A new selection of cool cafés for a warm afternoon... Do something slightly different around Oberkampf... The daily grind of the metro... Transcending the tired face of poverty on the metro... .

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Orwell, Poverty and Paris

by Isabelle Nikolic

I was sitting on one of those fold-down seats in the Metro, tranquilly reading Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell's chronicle of poverty in the 1930s, when, as happens more and more frequently, a man entered the car to ask for a little change from some generous souls he hoped might be there.
His voice came to me from behind: "I'm 57, I've finished a Contrat de Solidarité. I've worked a whole year for 2,500 Francs a month and at the end of the contract I find I don't even have the right to unemployment benefits. And I'm 57 years old".

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When he finished his speech he began to walk down the aisle between the seats. No one paid attention to his words. The more polite did their best to seem engaged in some preoccupation. Those who read continued to read, the talkers kept talking. Nothing. No expression. Their blank faces didn't let a single emotion show through.

When you take the Metro everyday, like I do, you know you'll have to deal with homeless people at least once or twice a day. You become hardened. But this was Saturday, and the people riding the train seemed different: a group of young men about 25, two Rastas, a big beautiful blonde with curly hair and three others who got on at the next stop.


The man was still brandishing his contract as proof that he had worked honestly, showing it to anybody who was willing to look. He interrupted the beautiful blonde to ask: "And you, what are you doing?" and then he took the chance to impose his story on her once more. She was also looking for a job.

"Then take a Contrat de Solidarité like me and you'll see," he finished, mispronouncing his "S" because of his missing teeth. The young girl was listening to him politely, half out of fear-fear of poor people, or fear of someday becoming one herself-and half to get rid of him without giving him a centime.

While most readers know George Orwell's classic 1984, not many are familiar with Down and Out in Paris and London -- a poignant look at the flipside of the city of light.

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...And me, I had Down and Out in Paris and London on my knees. The story was happening 60 years ago. I had a head full of Orwell's semi-humorous, semi-sordid descriptions and I was wondering what has really changed. Has anything changed?

The poor always have an air of fatigue, badly in need of a shave, dirty with threadbare clothes. This one was also full of rage. He cursed the government who he had decided was responsible for his own misery. He finally finished and left.

I don't know if he'd gotten one coin. And already I heard him repeating his worn-out speech in the next car.

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